


If I Could Melt Your Heart

by Cocopops1995



Series: Friends Are Family [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: And everyone else - Freeform, Everyone works together to find him, Gen, Missing Keith, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Shiro is worried, creepy aliens keeping other aliens as pets, platonicvldweek day 7: free day/AU, so is lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 15:39:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12751227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Keith is missing. Shiro and the team do their best to find him.





	If I Could Melt Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to my other fic "Cold In My Bones." You don't have to read it to understand what's going on, it's just everything from Keith's POV.

“I can’t find Keith anywhere! And I can’t reach him on the comms either!” Lance exclaimed, his voice pitched slightly higher than usual with obvious anxiety.

Shiro felt his own anxiety rocket up at the words, but he worked to keep his expression and voice calm. “When was the last time you saw him?” he asked.

“About fifteen dobashes. He went to the restroom and never came back.”

“Maybe he went back to the Castle.” Pidge, who had been standing with Shiro before Lance came looking for him, said. “You know how he feels about these things. And it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Then why isn’t he answering his comms?” Lance asked. 

Pidge shrugged, “He probably took his helmet off once he got to the Castle. You probably just missed him.” 

Lance didn’t look convinced and, quite frankly, Shiro didn’t feel convinced either. Keith wouldn’t have left without telling at least one of them. Not after the last time they’d been split up. He was about to say as much, but Lance spoke before he could.

“You don’t understand. He would have told me if he was going back. Especially after that creepy couple.”

Shiro frowned, “What creepy couple?”

“This couple of aliens, they looked kind of like the elves from The Lord of the Rings. Keith said they could smell that he was part Galra. Apparently they like to collect half-breeds and they actually asked Keith to join their collection! I rescued him from them, and then we both agreed that he would stick close to one of us.” Lance’s hands and arm were flailing all over in his agitation, drawing the attention of Hunk and Allura, “I watched him walk all the way into the restroom, and he didn’t come back out.”

“Did you check the restroom?” Pidge asked as Allura and Hunk joined them.

Lance nodded, “He’s not there.”

“What’s going on?” Allura asked.

“Keith’s missing.” Shiro answered, his voice tight, “Please contact Coran and see if he went back to the Castle.”

Allura nodded and stepped away to speak to Coran, who had remained onboard the Castle to do a few necessary system diagnostics.

“If he’s not at the Castle we need to start searching immediately. Pidge, you and I will go to the security to see if they have any surveillance we can use to try see what happened to him. Lance, Hunk, see if you can find anything out about that creepy couple that wanted Keith to join their collection. If Keith is missing, they’re first on our list of suspects.”

Allura rejoined them told them that, according to Coran, Keith had not returned to the Castle. 

“Alright, you all know what to do. Allura, will you please tell the king what’s going on, and ask for his help.”

Allura set her jaw in determination and nodded, “Of course.”

“And everyone stay on comms. No excuses.”

He waited as everyone acknowledged his order and then sent them off to do their different tasks.  
‘We’ll find you, Keith.’ 

***

“They’re gone!” Lance exclaimed over the comms half a varga later.

“Yeah, no Elves here at all.” Hunk added a moment later, “We’ve looked everywhere.”

“Pidge and I just got access to the surveillance recordings.” Shiro said working hard to keep the frustration out of his voice. You’d think these people would be a little more helpful to the paladins of Voltron for liberating them from the Galra. But no, after five dobashes of refusing to be helpful, Shiro had asked Allura to get the king to send a direct order himself. But the king had been in the middle of some or other important discussion and it had taken a further ten dobashes for her to even get to speak to him. Thankfully, the king had been much more willing to help than his security, and had come down personally to order them to help the paladins. By that time, too much time had passed and Shiro regretted not just asking Pidge to hack into their systems in the first place. Good relations be damned. 

“I’ve got them.” Pidge said after a few moments, “There they are, talking to Keith, like Lance said.” 

Shiro peered over her shoulder and watched as the couple that really did look like a couple of elves spoke to Keith. He could tell from Keith’s posture alone that he had been incredibly comfortable with the conversation, and he saw how Keith kept glancing around him, probably looking for some excuse to get away from them. His excuse came in the form of Lance moments later, who spoke to Keith and then the two of them walked away

The elvish couple watched them leave and then turned to speak to each other, before heading straight for the entrance. The cameras caught their expressions, and they both seemed to be looking forward to something. Not the expressions you would expect on the faces of people who had just been denied something that would have been very valuable to them.

“Well, that’s not suspicious at all.” Pidge deadpanned.

Shiro agreed. “Do you have access to the external recordings?”

Pidge nodded, “You want me to see where they went?”

“In a moment, first follow Keith, though. Hopefully we’ll be able to see exactly what happened.”

Pidge nodded and rewound the footage so that they could follow Keith. They watched as he milled about with Lance for a while, tension radiating off him in waves, even on camera. He kept glancing toward the elvish couple. Finally, he said something to Lance and then headed straight for the restrooms. They watched as he went in, but, just like Lance said, he never came back out again. Shiro noticed that the elvish couple left seconds after Keith entered the restroom.

Pidge began to type furiously at the console, “I’m setting up a program to look for any sign of him or the elves after this point in time. If there’s any other footage of him, I’ll find it.”

Shiro squeezed her shoulder and then turned to Allura and the king, who were conversing in hushed tones. 

“Your majesty.” he addressed the king, “Do you recognise these two?”

He pointed to one of the screens that still had a frozen image of the elvish couple on it, the anticipation on their faces as clear as day.

The king shook his head, “I am sorry, Black Paladin. I can only tell you that they are Nannea, an ancient race of explorers from a far away galaxy. But I do not know their names or their purpose for being here. I have sent for my head of security, however. She should be able to tell us something about them.

“Hey, Shiro?” Hunk said over the comms, “We just checked the restroom out again, and it looks like the window here was forced open.”

“Yeah, the locking mechanism seems to be totally broken.” Lance added, “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before!”

“You were looking for Keith, not broken windows, bro. Don’t beat yourself up.” Hunk said.

“Hunk’s right, Lance. You did well.” Shiro said.

“There!” Pidge exclaimed just as the head of security entered the room.

Shiro leaned over Pidge’s shoulder again. On her screen he watched as a couple of castle guards loaded an obviously unconscious Keith into a waiting pod. Overseeing this was the Nannean man, who dropped something into each of the guards hands before slipping into the pod. A moment later, the pod took off and flew away into the night.

Shiro felt anger flare up in his chest, and he could barely contain it. He spun and glared at the stunned head of security, who had been watching the events unfold along with Allura and the king. Allura was already communicating with Coran, telling him to track the Nannean pod.

“What kind of security do you call that?!” Shiro demanded.

“The head of security’s face twisted in disappointment and shame. “Apologies, Black Paladin. I will deal with those two immediately.”

“No.” The king ordered, his voice cold as steel, “You will bring them to me, and I will deal with them personally.”

The head of security seemed stunned at this, but she nodded and hurried back out again.

“Black Paladin, if there is anything more I can do to be of assistance -”

“That won’t be necessary.” Allura cut him off, “My advisor is tracking their pod as we speak. They will not escape. Paladins, return to the Castle at once. We must follow at once.” She turned to the king, “Thank you for all your assistance, your majesty. But we will deal with them from here on out.”

“Of course.” The king said, bowing his head, “I wish you the best of luck.” 

Allura lifted her head high, determination and fury burning in her eyes. “We don’t need it.”

Regardless of whether they needed it or not, luck was on their side. The Nanneans hadn’t left the galaxy yet, and although their main ship was very advanced, it was still no match for the Castle, or the lions. 

Shiro and the other paladins got to their lions and didn’t even bother trying to contact the Nanneans. Pidge and Lance made quick work of their ship’s engines and then Shiro and the others boarded by force. The Nannean crew tried to defend their ship, but they were no match for four paladins of Voltron, all determined to save their friend. Shiro didn’t even need to activate his arm. 

Then they found the collection room, and disgust burned in his stomach. 

“What the quiznack?” Hunk murmured in horror.

“Those sick bastards!” Pidge exclaimed. 

“Dios mío.” Lance muttered.

Rows and rows of what basically looked like fish tanks, each containing some kind of alien, filled the room - some of them even contained water and fishlike aliens. Shiro didn’t think he would ever be able to hate anyone more than he hated Zarkon’s witch, but the Nannean couple definitely came close now. And they hadn’t even found Keith yet.

Shiro swallowed his disgust. “Alright, split up. We find Keith first and make sure he’s okay. Then we’ll come back for the rest of them. Call out when you find them.”

The others nodded and each of them took a row. It took a good few minutes, but finally Shiro found Keith dressed in only his undersuit, and passed out on the floor of his own fish tank. Shiro’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. Keith’s face was pale, much paler than usual, and his lips were blue. He looked - he looked…

Shiro didn’t complete the thought, rather he lit up his arm and slashed through the screens that flashed on the bottom of the tank. The door opened with a hiss. Shiro yanked it open and was immediately hit by a wave of cold air, like opening the door to a walk-in fridge. Shiro’s eyes went wide with the realisation that Keith was freezing to death. 

He reached in and pulled Keith toward him and he felt a wave of relief hit him when he saw that Keith’s eyes were actually open, although they were glazed over and he didn’t seem to be aware of what was going on around him.

“Keith?” Shiro asked worriedly as felt for Keith’s pulse with his flesh fingers. His skin was icy cold to the touch. Keith reacted to the touch by letting out a choked cry and weakly struggling against Shiro.

“Keith!” Shiro said again, almost losing his grip at the unexpected movement. Keith seemed to hear him though. He stopped fighting and went still in Shiro’s arms. His eyes slowly slid up to Shiro’s face, but Shiro wasn’t sure Keith really saw him.

“That’ it, Keith.” Shiro said, pulling him into a more secure hold as the others found him, “We’ve got you now. Everything will be okay now.”

Keith’s eyes slide closed and he went completely limp in Shiro’s arms.

“Is he okay?” Pidge asked, voice low and filled with concern. 

Shiro stood up, cradling Keith close to his chest. “He will be.” 

They get him to the Castle and Coran readies a pod, setting it to heat instead of freeze. They place Keith inside, and Coran announces that he’ll make a full recovery.

“Just a few vargas in the pod to thaw him all out again. He doesn’t seem to have any injuries other than a bit of a bump to the head.” 

Relief floods Shiro at Coran’s words. Then, although they all want to stay by Keith’s side as he heals, he and the rest of the Paladins get to work freeing the other aliens in the collection.

Shiro leaves the interrogation of the Nannean couple to Allura. He honestly doesn’t trust himself around them. And he frankly doesn’t care what they have to say about their actions. The other paladins seem to share his feelings. 

They finish freeing all the other aliens and get back to the Castle just in time to be there when Keith wakes up. He’s confused at first, but so much more lucid than he had been when Shiro had pulled him out of that frigid fish tank, and Shiro feels the lingering anxiety that had been in his chest melt away completely. 

The naked relief on Keith’s face when he realises where he is and who he’s with just about breaks Shiro’s heart. He can only imagine how Keith had felt, slowly freezing, alone in a tank, and surrounded by so many more aliens in a similar position.

Shiro pulls Keith into a hug as soon as he can and soon the others join in. And Shiro’s just so glad to have his team, his family, back together again.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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